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Coroner slams management of the methadone program

DAVID MARK: A coroner has given a scathing critique of the Victorian methadone drug treatment program, labelling the supervision of addicts using the program as "shamefully inadequate".

An examination by the Coroners Protection Unit found that over a two year period, more than 60 people died from gaining access to takeaway doses of the drug prescribed to other people.

Sarah Farnsworth reports.

SARAH FARNSWORTH: Sam Biondo from the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association says internationally the methadone program is a gold standard program that saves lives.

SAM BIONDO: In Victoria there are 14,700 individuals approximately on the program. There's a large number, and the overwhelming large proportion of these individuals participate in the program legally, following all the rules and regulations that are before them.

SARAH FARNSWORTH: But in May 2010, Helen Stagoll died from using a takeaway dose prescribed to a heroin addict on the methadone program. She was 16 and had accessed the drug in exchange for cannabis.

Her death prompted the Victorian Coroners Prevention Unit to further examine the management of the methadone program in Victoria, more particularly the practice known as dose diversion, were prescriptions of methadone are sold or traded for other drugs on the black market or simply given to other people.

The unit's analysis found 124 people died of methadone toxicity between 2010 and 2011. Fifty of those cases involved the use of takeaway doses and 21 of them weren't actually on the methadone program.

Overall, coroner Jacinta Heffey said it was possible 63 people had died from diverted methadone in a two year period.

Community pharmacist Irvine Newton is the head of the Harm Minimisation Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society.

IRVINE NEWTON: I am a bit surprised by the numbers. I certainly wouldn't have thought that the numbers would be that high. My assumption would be though that they're methadone-related deaths, and there may well be other implications. It may well be that the methadone takeaway doses are involved. It could well be that some of those clients have been doing other things, like using other drugs and so on as well.

SARAH FARNSWORTH: He's warned against restricted access to takeaway doses, which he says help people with drug dependence stay on the straight and narrow.

IRVINE NEWTON: It's a balance. I mean, it's always a judgment about is this person going to be a suitable candidate to have takeaway doses? And if they are, and if it allows them to function with their family and their work life and so on, then so be the good.

But when things go wrong, they have drastic consequences.

SARAH FARNSWORTH: In handing down her finding, coroner Heffey said the pendulum appears to have swung too far in favour of minimising harm to addicts while ignoring the risks posed to vulnerable people like young Helen Stagoll.

She decried the Department of Health's supervision of the program as "shamefully inadequate" and called for an urgent and robust rethink, making 10 recommendations.

Irvine Newton agrees there are gaps in the system.

IRVINE NEWTON: One of the holes in the system is that they can't actually tell you at any particular time who is on a program, which is data that they ought to have, and haven't got, and they should have. So in other words, there might be 14,500 people for instance with permits in Victoria at the moment, but the department doesn't know at any particular time which of those people are actually still on a program.

SARAH FARNSWORTH: A spokesman for the Department of Health says the coroner's recommendations will be given serious consideration.